Two hundred years ago, roads and sailing routes networked the world. Wars and fortunes rode on timely news, but post horses and packet boats could no longer travel fast or far enough to beat the competition among nations or businesses. Then, beginning in the 1840s, a web of electrical wires overcame time and distance. The need to communicate had spurred people to create new technologies.
The telegraph and its heir, the Internet, gave rise to new networked worlds. Both technologies generated spectacular leaps in the speed of communication, and both quickly grew beyond even their creators' wildest dreams.
